** DON POV **
"Woah, woah, woah! What in the hell is the problem with you two now?" Penk demanded as Irene and I walked back into the barracks, yelling at each other as usual.
Alex Penkala was one of my best friends, and his twin sister Irene was the bane of my existence. Even her breathing got on my damn nerves most of the time. We had argued incessantly since the start of basic training, mostly about petty bullshit. Today, I had apparently spoken inappropriately to Ms. Lamb, the laundress that we all took our uniforms to, incurring Irene's wrath by removing my hat and not cursing.
"He's obnoxious," she sniped, responding to Penk's question as she pushed between us to get to her bunk.
He rolled his eyes and asked, "What did he do now?"
"Nothing! I didn't do a damn thing! We went to get our laundry from Ms. Lamb, and when we came out, she started bitching at me about how polite I was being!" I protested, throwing my hands up in the air. "I have no idea what her problem is. Your sister is crazy, Penk."
I expected him to be irritated, as he usually was by our constant bickering. Instead, he watched her fidgeting as I recounted what she'd been saying and, when I had finished, he started laughing.
"She's not crazy, Malark. She's jealous."
"What?" Irene and I demanded simultaneously.
"You heard me, sis. You're jealous. I've heard you complain about him at Ms. Lamb's before. Why would you care if he was polite to her unless you're mad because he doesn't talk that way to you?"
Puzzle pieces started coming together in my brain. I turned slowly, catching a brief glimpse of her face before she turned away and went back to needlessly reorganizing her bunk. The deep crimson of her cheeks jumped out and punched me in the gut. I looked back to Alex in disbelief, but he just winked at me. The rest of the day was spent in tense silence, me watching her out of the corner of my eye, and her trying to pretend that she didn't notice. Penk, Skip Muck, and I were standing outside smoking cigarettes that evening when the subject was brought up again.
Skip blew out a puff of smoke and asked, "So, when are you going to admit that the reason you two fight all the time is because you want each other?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Come on, Don. Everybody can see it but you two. You don't even argue about anything real. You just pester each other so that you have an excuse to talk and fire each other up," Penk answered, Skip nodding vigorously beside him.
"Exactly. If you really couldn't stand each other, you'd stay away from each other," he interjected. "But you don't. You two find a way to bicker every single day. You seek her out to start arguments. And that shit she was saying about you talking to Ms. Lamb today? Why would she care if you were polite or flirting with the lady, unless…"
His grand revelation was cut off abruptly by Irene walking out of the barracks and past our little group. My eyes followed her toward the showers until I heard snickers from beside me. Alex cleared his throat.
"So, um, you ready to fess up yet?"
I made the decision without really meaning to, giving him a half-hearted response of, "Yeah, uh, sure. I'll… I'll be back in a minute," and following in the direction she had gone, ignoring the knowing chuckles coming from the men I left standing there.
The truth was that everything my friends had just said, I'd already been turning over in my head all day. It occurred to me that I did look for things to pick on her about, just so that I could provoke her into arguing with me. I'd watched her more closely than I liked to admit during training, impressed with her skill and work ethic. Thoughts of her in her PT gear still danced behind my eyelids when I slept. I could pick out the different sounds of her laughter, from her polite but insincere chuckle to her shy giggle and her full-on belly laugh. I thought hard about whether I really disliked her, and I discovered that I could not picture my day without her in it.
The longest I'd gone without her since training began was from the time we loaded onto the planes until we found each other on D-Day. I'd been standing with Muck and Penk in the staging area. She walked up, face covered in grease paint, to hug her brother goodbye. She hugged Skip and then, to my surprise, she hugged me too. The next eighteen hours were the longest of my life, and the rush of relief I felt when I looked up and saw her face in the assembly area was unmistakable. For the second time in our tempestuous relationship, we hugged.
In fact, D-Day had been the one time that our daily argument had been about something meaningful. She'd witnessed my display of utter stupidity at Brecourt, running out into the field after what I had wrongfully assumed was a Luger. When I made it back into the trench, she let loose on me with a stream of curse words that I didn't even realize she knew.
Later that evening, a group of us were in the back of a truck joking around as I tried to use an ammunition box to cook something edible from our rations. She sat across from me, silent for the first time since I'd known her, even after Lieutenant Winters poked his head in and made us all laugh by calling Bill out on his Quaker comments. Buck Compton, a lieutenant but also a buddy, elbowed her in the side.
"Hey, you okay there, Penky?"
Bill leaned over and passed her the bottle we'd been sharing, answering Buck's question as, to my surprise, she took a long pull.
"Nah, Buck. She's still pissed at Malark for his being a daredevil idiot at Brecourt."
"Oh, come on!" I protested. "It wasn't that big of a deal. Besides, she's probably more pissed that I didn't get hit. If I'd gotten shot in the ass, she'd probably have thrown a party."
I was the only one who laughed at my joke. The rest of them held their breath, looking at her like her head was going to explode at any moment. I followed their eyes and found her sending me a hard glare.
"Don't you dare joke about getting hit. If you ever scare me like that again, I will never forgive you." Her face was deathly serious and the flickering of the firelight reflected on the moisture rimming her eyes. I sat back against the side of the truck in stunned silence as she suddenly snapped free of her daze and climbed out of the truck. "Excuse me guys. I need some fresh air."
I hadn't had much time to process what had happened that night, given that we were in combat for the next month, but I was thinking about it now. Wrapped up in my distraction, I stepped into the shower area before I noticed that the water was already running and my breath caught in my throat. There, under the stream of water in all her naked glory, stood my nemesis… and she was the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen in my life.
** IRENE POV **
Sometimes it was hard to tell who I wanted to strangle more, Donald Malarkey or my brother. Today had been one of those days, and I knew by the way that they all clammed up when I walked past them on my way to the shower, that they were talking about it again. I wanted to protest. I wanted to tell my smartass brother that he didn't know what he was talking about. That I wasn't jealous, and that I didn't have feelings for his friend. The only problem was that Alex could always tell when I was lying, and he'd have seen right through me.
I'm not sure when I first realized that I had developed feelings for Don, but somewhere between his laughter and watching him play basketball with the boys, blushing as I realized that I was staring at his muscular arms and torso, that was exactly what had happened. I'd been so happy to see him on D-Day that I almost jumped into his arms. Then he pulled that stupid stunt at Brecourt. More than anything, I wanted to grab him by the collar and shake him. In that moment, I'd been truly terrified of losing him, and later on in the truck, I'd come as close as I ever had to telling him how I felt. The look of shock that had overcome him as I pushed my way out of the truck danced behind my eyelids now as I let the water of the shower run over me, trying unsuccessfully to wash away the unrequited feelings I'd been hiding for so long.
A gasp from the doorway startled me, and my eyes snapped open. Standing before me was the last person I'd expected to see. I was too shocked to be embarrassed, and for a long moment, we just stared at each other. Then, without warning, he took two steps forward and put a hand behind my head, crushing my lips to his.
The kiss was demanding and, in a way, felt much like our bickering did, as though we were just on the edge of something that was ready to explode between us. His tongue swept across mine, willing me to return the kiss, and my body conformed to his of its own accord, arms snaking around his neck, pulling him into me, even as his own wrapped tightly around my waist. For a moment, my mind was blank, completely lost in the moment. Then reality crashed in around me.
I pushed him away forcefully, stumbling backward into the wall of the shower and staring at him, confusion written across my face. He watched me cautiously, was worried that I was going to slap him, or maybe just take off running.
"What's wrong, Re?"
"You kissed me."
"Yeah," he answered, now somewhat amused, and I noticed that he was edging closer to me again. I'd backed myself into a corner, so I had nowhere to go. His hands found my hips and I tried not to shudder at his touch. "Did you not want me to kiss you?"
"Yes. I mean, no. I mean…"
It was hard to breathe with him so close to me. I managed only shallow gasps as one hand came up to cup my cheek. His eyes held me in place as he leaned into me again. This kiss was firm but slow, tenderly coaxing me to return it until my fingers again found their place in his hair. Somewhere along the way, we became the only two people in the world. When at last he pulled back, both of our eyes still closed against the fuzzy sensation that had overtaken us, it was only to nuzzle his nose against mine and whisper a soft question that we both followed with quiet laughter.
"See, now isn't this more fun than arguing?"
I sighed as he lifted me into his arms, his lips grazing the skin of my neck and shoulder, leaving goosebumps in their wake. The white t-shirt he was wearing now soaked from the shower, left no mystery to those muscles that I'd been admiring from a distance. With my hand against his chest, I could feel the strong, steady beat of his heart. It wasn't racing. There wasn't an ounce of nervousness about him as he kissed me, and his confidence made me want him all the more.
"Don…"
"Yeah, baby?"
"What is this?"
"This is me giving up on pretending that I don't want you," he answered, matter-of-factly. "You okay with that, or do you want to go back to the way things were?"
I smiled at the smartass challenge in the tone of a man whose hands were so comfortably cupped underneath my rear. He was daring me to protest because we both knew that I had no desire to.
Ordinarily, I would have responded to him in kind, but under the weight of his unflinching gaze and the feeling of his thumbs brushing my bare hips, the cheekiest response that I could manage was, "So… you want me?"
** DON POV **
Did I want her? I didn't even dignify her question with a verbal response, instead leaning into another kiss as I shifted her hips against mine. If the soft moan was any indication, her question was answered. I didn't just want her. I was aching for her.
This kiss was more fevered than the last. Her hands were at the base of my soaking T-shirt as I held her against the wall, and then she was pulling it over my head. Her hands seemed to draw my blood to every spot that she touched. My body moved against hers in a rhythm we both already seemed to know. Fingernails dug into my shoulder blades so that I, without meaning to, left a purplish mark at the spot where her neck and shoulder met. My teeth found the spot again. She gasped my name. Hands were unfastening my belt and tugging at my trousers, and I wasn't sure whether they were hers or mine. Maybe both at once.
I lifted her higher so that my mouth could trail across her breasts, catching pink flesh between my teeth and teasing it stiff. She laid her head back against the wall, surrendering her body completely to me. It sliced through what remained of my restraint like a knife through parachute risers. I was undone.
"Re, baby, if you don't want this, tell me now because…"
She silenced me with a kiss and a shift of her hips that joined our bodies in the most intimate way. I felt the rumble of satisfaction rising up from deep in my chest as she braced herself against the wall, a delicious friction building between us. One arm wrapped around her waist and, forehead to forehead, I held her gaze as firmly as I held her body.
I tried to be gentle. The soft whimpers that reminded me she'd never done this before became quiet gasps, which became a deep, lustful kiss that, when she moaned into it, made me want to be on the other side of the world, sprawled haphazardly across a mattress in the bedroom of a house that belonged to us, making love until the sun came up.
** IRENE POV **
God, he felt amazing. I barely noticed the shower wall at my back, or the way his fingers dug into my hip, sure to leave marks as he snapped his hips forward until I was somewhere between breathless gasping and cries of pleasure. He kissed me like he was searching for something, mumbling against my lips words about a home, our bedroom, and making love. My hand pushed against his shoulder until he looked at me, his movements slowing at my expression.
"What's wrong, baby?"
"Nothing. I just…"
His eyes searched mine for a moment, reading the questions in my mind. Mine searched his, finding the answers I was looking for.
"Re, you know you can trust me, right?"
"Can I? I mean, this is a little out of character for two people who can't get through a day without arguing, don't you think?"
He smiled and kissed me softly, renewing that slow, steady rhythm as, against my lips, he whispered, "You know the only thing that we were really fighting was this, don't you sweetheart? Trying to lie about how we felt to Skip and your brother? Trying to act like we didn't want each other? But that's all it was. An act."
I was drawing deep breaths again, trying to maintain my composure as he drew me toward the edge with his words.
"Is that so? How do you know I was acting?"
"Because I sleep next to you," came his responding growl, his voice dropping lower that I'd ever heard before and the pace of his hips against mine increasing until he was driving soft cries from my throat again. "That's right, baby. I heard you talking in your sleep. I know you dream about me. About this. And all this time, it's been driving me crazy because I couldn't tell you that I dream about you too."
"You dream about me? What do you dream about me?"
His hand slipped between us, thumb brushing across the bundle of nerves at my center so that I cried out and he chuckled low against my ear.
"I dream about slipping into the bed beside you and pulling you into my arms. Kissing you all over your body. Pulling the covers up around us and making love to you all night long. I've dreamed about this. God, Re, I've wanted you for so long, baby. So long."
"Don…"
I couldn't breathe again. I was gasping for air. The more he whispered those words into my ear, the more his hips drove forward into mine, and the more I squirmed against him, trying to meet every thrust. We were kissing again, all lips and tongues and teeth, fighting for dominance as wet flesh slipped easily against wet flesh. My blood was on fire, nerves tingling, muscles quivering, and his movements became more erratic, mumbled words becoming only groans and gasps. At last, my world went bright as I went tumbling over the edge into blissful oblivion, and the waves of my own pleasure washed him over the edge behind me. His whole body shook as he throbbed inside me, releasing two years of tension with one more passionate kiss.
He held me close for a long time as the world returned to spin on its regular axis once again. Breathing returned to normal, but as the pleasure gave way to reality, I began to wonder what this meant. My heart started to pound as the realization set in that this might not mean the same thing to him as it had to me. He must have felt it, because he sat me back on my feet, and we dressed in a tense silence that continued as we walked back toward the barracks. I wasn't sure what to think. Then I saw Skip and Alex smoking outside the door and stopped in my tracks.
"Shit."
"What's wrong?"
"Look at the doorway."
"Yeah," he shrugged. "I saw them. So what?"
"So what? You don't think my brother is going to have an issue?"
I looked incredulously at his self-assured grin, trying to ignore the stares coming from our curious audience. Then he slipped his hand into mine, intertwining our fingers and drawing my hand up to kiss my knuckles, pulling me toward the door.
"Baby, I really don't care. Why? You ashamed of me?"
"No! Of course not! I love…"
His smile grew at my slip of the tongue, but I caught myself just as we stopped in front of Skip and Alex. Don immediately bummed a cigarette, pretending not to notice the raised eyebrows of his friends. At last, Skip could hold it in no longer.
"Don, why in the hell are your clothes wet?"
"I had to talk to Irene, and she was in the shower," he answered without hesitation.
Alex's eyes widened and Skip took a step back to avoid the explosion.
"You followed my sister into the shower? And you! You didn't kick him out? Wait, what the hell took you so… Re? What the hell is that on your neck?" Realizations were hitting him quickly now, and I could see the fire in his eyes. I moved to soothe him, but Don held my hand firmly as he continued ranting. "How the hell could you, Don? She's not some little skirt! She's my sister! My sister! And I…"
"And I love her."
"You what?" the three of us asked at once.
Don turned to look down at me, still smiling confidently, but speaking to Alex.
"Penk, I know she's not just some skirt. I'd never take advantage of your sister. I'm in love with her."
I could hear my brother sigh and Skip laugh as Don pulled me into another kiss, whispering "I love yous" against each other's lips. Finally, still wrapped up in each other, we returned our attention to our unwilling audience. My brother's eyes no longer held anger.
"It's about time," Skip laughed, and Alex sighed in reluctant agreement.
"Just promise me two things," he finally said. "One, ya gotta name one kid after me since I'm responsible for introducing you two."
I laughed and nodded, "Okay. And two?"
Alex's face grew serious, almost sad, as he took a long look at me. Then, his eyes met and held Don's until his own expression grew worried.
"What?" Don asked, hugging me tightly. "What is it, Alex?"
"Don, you have to promise me to take care of her. If anything happens to… I mean, if I can't… Just promise me that you'll make sure she's okay."
Don released my hand long enough to give his friend a brief hug, and I could hear them whispering to each other. Releasing Don, Alex pulled me into a tight bear hug and kissed my cheek.
"I love you, Alex."
"You might marry my best friend, but you're always going to be my sister and I will always be protective. I love you, Re. I'll always love you, no matter what. Even when you change your last name to Malarkey."